Index of links to 8-bit Acorn Emulators

[sydney]

Here is a list of the currently available emulators for the 8 bit range of Acorn computers. This is very much a work in progress - please post any useful information in this thread and I'll add it to the top post.

System 1

Acorn Microcomputer Emulator
Website: http://speleotrove.com/acorn/acornEmulator.html
Windows: Install and run. Linux: Wine needed. macOS: Unknown

MAME
Website: http://mamedev.org/ (documentation at http://docs.mamedev.org/)
Github: https://github.com/mamedev/mame
Windows: Install and run (ROMs not included) Linux/macOS: See http://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/SDL_S ... _Platforms
Supported systems include: Acorn System 1/2/3/4/5, Atom, BBC Model A/B/B+, BBC Master 128/512/ET/Turbo, BBC Master Compact/Prodest PC 128S, Electron (with MRB), and more...
Supported add-ons:
BBC: 6502/65C102/80186/80286/Z80/ARM/68000 2nd processors, various floppy controllers (Acorn, Watford, Cumana, Opus), BeebSID, Opus Challenger, etc.
Electron: cartridges ABR/AQR/Click/MGC/Peg400/Cumana/Solidisk EFS/etc. and expansions Plus1/Plus3/ROMBOX/ROMBOX+

---

Atom

Acorn Atom Emulator
Website: http://www.stairwaytohell.com/atom/wouterras/
Github:
Windows: Unknown. DOS: Run? Linux: Unknown. macOS: Unknown

Atomulator
Website: http://atomulator.acornatom.co.uk/
Github: https://github.com/hoglet67/Atomulator
Windows: Install and run. Linux: Compilation needed. macOS: Compilation needed.

HTeMuLator
Website: http://phils-place.co.uk/HTeMuLator/atom/
Github: https://github.com/oss003/HTeMuLator
Runs in browser! Works in Safari, works in Firefox, no others tested

jsatom
Website: https://jsatom.everytale.co.uk/
Runs in browser! Works in Safari, works in Firefox, no others tested

MAME
Website: http://mamedev.org/ (documentation at http://docs.mamedev.org/)
Github: https://github.com/mamedev/mame
Windows: Install and run (ROMs not included) Linux/macOS: See http://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/SDL_S ... _Platforms
Supported systems include: Acorn System 1/2/3/4/5, Atom, BBC Model A/B/B+, BBC Master 128/512/ET/Turbo, BBC Master Compact/Prodest PC 128S, Electron (with MRB), and more...
Supported add-ons:
BBC: 6502/65C102/80186/80286/Z80/ARM/68000 2nd processors, various floppy controllers (Acorn, Watford, Cumana, Opus), BeebSID, Opus Challenger, etc.
Electron: cartridges ABR/AQR/Click/MGC/Peg400/Cumana/Solidisk EFS/etc. and expansions Plus1/Plus3/ROMBOX/ROMBOX+

Tiny Emus
Website: https://floooh.github.io/tiny8bit/atom.html
Github: https://github.com/floooh/chips-test
Runs in browser! Works in Safari, works in Firefox, no others tested

YAKC
Website: http://floooh.github.io/virtualkc/
Github: https://github.com/floooh/yakc
Runs in browser! Works in Safari, works in Firefox, no others tested
Select in the menu System->Acorn Atom

---

Acorn Electron

Clock Signal (CLK)
Website:
Github: https://github.com/TomHarte/CLK/
Windows: NA? Linux: Compilation needed or prebuilt binary via Snap. macOS: Install and run.

Electrem
Website: http://electrem.emuunlim.com/index.html
Github: https://github.com/TomHarte/ElectrEm
Windows: Install and run. DOS: Run? Linux: Compilation needed. macOS: Universal Binary

Elk JS
Website: http://elkjs.azurewebsites.net/
Runs in browser. Works in Safari, works in Firefox, no others tested

Elkulator
Website: http://elkulator.acornelectron.co.uk/
Github: https://github.com/stardot/elkulator
Windows: Install and run. DOS: Run? Linux: Compilation needed. macOS: Unknown

MAME
Website: http://mamedev.org/ (documentation at http://docs.mamedev.org/)
Github: https://github.com/mamedev/mame
Windows: Install and run (ROMs not included) Linux/macOS: See http://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/SDL_S ... _Platforms
Supported systems include: Acorn System 1/2/3/4/5, Atom, BBC Model A/B/B+, BBC Master 128/512/ET/Turbo, BBC Master Compact/Prodest PC 128S, Electron (with MRB), and more...
Supported add-ons:
BBC: 6502/65C102/80186/80286/Z80/ARM/68000 2nd processors, various floppy controllers (Acorn, Watford, Cumana, Opus), BeebSID, Opus Challenger, etc.
Electron: cartridges ABR/AQR/Click/MGC/Peg400/Cumana/Solidisk EFS/etc. and expansions Plus1/Plus3/ROMBOX/ROMBOX+

---

BBC Micro

B-em
Website: http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/
Github: https://github.com/stardot/b-em
Windows: Install and run. macOS: Compilation needed. Linux: Compilation needed - see this post for additional infromation

b2
Website:
Github: https://github.com/tom-seddon/b2
Windows: Install and run. Linux: Compilation needed or prebuilt binary via Snap. macOS: Install and run?

BeebEm
Website: http://www.mkw.me.uk/beebem/
Website (macOS): http://www.g7jjf.com/download.htm
Github: https://github.com/stardot/beebem
Windows: Install and run. Linux: Compilation needed. macOS: Install and run.

beebjit
Github: https://github.com/scarybeasts/beebjit/
Windows: Install an run. Linux: Compilation needed? macOS: unknown?

jsbeeb
Website: https://bbc.godbolt.org/
Github: https://github.com/mattgodbolt/jsbeeb
Runs in browser! Works in Safari, works in Firefox, no others tested

MAME
Website: http://mamedev.org/ (documentation at http://docs.mamedev.org/)
Github: https://github.com/mamedev/mame
Windows: Install and run (ROMs not included) Linux/macOS: See http://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/SDL_S ... _Platforms
Supported systems include: Acorn System 1/2/3/4/5, Atom, BBC Model A/B/B+, BBC Master 128/512/ET/Turbo, BBC Master Compact/Prodest PC 128S, Electron (with MRB), and more...
Supported add-ons:
BBC: 6502/65C102/80186/80286/Z80/ARM/68000 2nd processors, various floppy controllers (Acorn, Watford, Cumana, Opus), BeebSID, Opus Challenger, etc.
Electron: cartridges ABR/AQR/Click/MGC/Peg400/Cumana/Solidisk EFS/etc. and expansions Plus1/Plus3/ROMBOX/ROMBOX+

---

Emulators for RISC OS

BBC Micro
BeebIt by Michael Foot https://mjfoot.netlify.app/bbc.htm

BBC and Electron
6502em by Murklesoft http://www.borcherds.co.uk/murklesoft/r ... 502em.html which also emulates the Electron and is commercial software.

[sydney]

So I've made a start. I know there are a few missing - notably B2, Clocksignal and jsbeeb - but they will be added in due course (after going swimming with the kids!).
Please post any useful information in this thread and I'll get it added asap.

[oss003]

There's another Acorn Atom emulator in Tiny Emus written by Andre Weissflog:

Website: https://floooh.github.io/tiny8bit/atom.html
Github: https://github.com/floooh/chips-test
Runs in browser!

And this one called YAKC also from Andre Weissflog:

Select in the menu System->Acorn Atom
Website: http://floooh.github.io/virtualkc/
Github: https://github.com/floooh/yakc
Runs in browser!

Wouter Ras his emulator was written for DOS but runs in DOSbox in Windows.
Sources can be found here: www.acornatom.nl/hardware/atinpc/atomv122.html

Greetings
Kees

[sydney]

There's another Acorn Atom emulator in Tiny Emus written by Andre Weissflog:

Website: https://floooh.github.io/tiny8bit/atom.html
Github: https://github.com/floooh/chips-test
Runs in browser!

I just get a black screen with this - any instructions?

And this one called YAKC also from Andre Weissflog:

Select in the menu System->Acorn Atom
Website: http://floooh.github.io/virtualkc/
Github: https://github.com/floooh/yakc
Runs in browser!

Added!

Wouter Ras his emulator was written for DOS but runs in DOSbox in Windows.
Sources can be found here: www.acornatom.nl/hardware/atinpc/atomv122.html

I think this is possibly the same as the first emulator in the list.

[oss003]

There's another Acorn Atom emulator in Tiny Emus written by Andre Weissflog:

Website: https://floooh.github.io/tiny8bit/atom.html
Github: https://github.com/floooh/chips-test
Runs in browser!

I just get a black screen with this - any instructions?

It's ok on my PC in Google Chrome .....
Hmmm ... not in Explorer ......
This is the startpage: https://floooh.github.io/tiny8bit

Greetings
Kees

[BigEd]

For emulators in browsers, it might be worth a scoreboard, as to whether they work in Chrome/Firefox/Safari/IE

[kieranhj]

Are there any instructions for getting BBC emulation running in MAME BTW? Definitely not “install and run”. Last time I tried it just barfed with a list of ROM images that were required but I couldn’t find a matching set online anywhere, just a couple of obvious ones like BASIC and OS1.2 that I could crib from other emulators. Gave up in the end.

[Pernod]

Are there any instructions for getting BBC emulation running in MAME BTW?

I'll be updating the MAME entry when I'm back from vacation. All required ROMs are publicly available, but obviously can't be distributed with MAME like other emulators as a full set covers over 20,000 machines and is over 60GB. I could keep a post updated with all MAME Acorn related ROMs maybe?

[Coeus]

Please post any useful information in this thread and I'll get it added asap.

A very good start on a good idea. As far as I know MESS and MAME have merged, i.e. effectively MAME has subsumed MESS. With regard to BeebEm, if compiled for Linux does it have the complete feature set? I believe some forum member have managed to get BeebEm to run under WINE.

[Elminster]

Please post any useful information in this thread and I'll get it added asap.

A very good start on a good idea. As far as I know MESS and MAME have merged, i.e. effectively MAME has subsumed MESS. With regard to BeebEm, if compiled for Linux does it have the complete feature set? I believe some forum member have managed to get BeebEm to run under WINE.

It will run native, or on wine or Docker. But only the later 2 will have all the features as the Mac version (when you get it working) has missing features. The threads above have the gory details.

[Kazzie]

How about an honourable mention for Mike Cowlishaw's Acorn Microcomputer (System 1) Emulator? http://speleotrove.com/acorn/acornEmulator.html
Compiled for Windows, it runs faultlessly for me on Linux through Wine.

[Pernod]

Please update the MAME entry with:

Website: http://mamedev.org/ (documentation at http://docs.mamedev.org/)
Github: https://github.com/mamedev/mame
Windows: Install and run (ROMs not included) Linux/macOS: See http://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/SDL_S ... _Platforms
Supported systems include: Acorn System 1/2/3/4/5, Atom, BBC Model A/B/B+, BBC Master 128/512/ET/Turbo, BBC Master Compact/Prodest PC 128S, Electron (with MRB), and more...
Supported add-ons:
BBC: 6502/65C102/80186/80286/Z80/ARM/68000 2nd processors, various floppy controllers (Acorn, Watford, Cumana, Opus), BeebSID, Opus Challenger, etc.
Electron: cartridges ABR/AQR/Click/MGC/Peg400/Cumana/Solidisk EFS/etc. and expansions Plus1/Plus3/ROMBOX/ROMBOX+

As mentioned earlier, MESS no longer exists as it was absorbed into MAME about 3 years ago.

[lurkio]

Website (macOS): http://www.g7jjf.com/download.htm
Github: https://github.com/stardot/beebem
Windows: Install and run. Linux: Compilation needed. macOS: In its current state, the source code for Mac BeebEm can't be compiled under recent versions of macOS.

Thanks to guddler and Jon, the note for macOS can now be changed to "Install and run"!

[ThomasHarte]

Re: Clock Signal, for macOS it is install and run. There are also quite a few things for which I referred to ElectrEm (especially ADC/SBC decimal logic, and tape interrupt logic), so there's a continuity there. And, sure, it's multisystem but only the one Acorn machine so file it as you will.

[sydney]

So I've done a fresh install of Linux Mint 19.1 MATE and tried to install b-em. It wasn't as easy as I hoped as g++ is not installed as standard and neither is allegro5. Installing allegro5 doesn't fully install it so after some googling I found a list of the libraries and installed them all. Not all of the commands find
something to install but it would have taken me ages to back through the terminal window to find the ones that did so I just listed them all.
Hope this helps.

EDIT: I've just done a fresh install of Linux Mint 20 and g++ was still missing but all of allegro seems to have installed with:

sudo apt-get install liballegro5-dev

You'll still need to install g++

sudo apt-get install g++


If this doesn't work them maybe try the rest of allegro with this:

liballegro5-dev:
sudo apt-get install liballegro-audio5-dev
sudo apt-get install liballegro-dialog5-dev
sudo apt-get install liballegro-image5-dev
sudo apt-get install liballegro-ttf5-dev
sudo apt-get install liballegro-acodec5-dev
sudo apt-get install liballegro-physfs5-dev
sudo apt-get install liballegro-primitives5-dev
sudo apt-get install liballegro-color5-dev
sudo apt-get install liballegro-font5-dev
sudo apt-get install liballegro-memfile5-dev

[EdwardianDuck]

b2 on macOS Catalina

I recently upgraded from Mavericks to Catalina and thankfully have still got a working 6502 development environment!

I had to switch to b2 from BeebEm because that's all I could figure out how to get working. I used the prebuilt binary.

After going through Apple's "control + click, cancel, control + click, oh look, you now get the option to run the program, run program" rigmarole, b2 starts up and runs as expected. OK, I don't know enough to test everything, but it runs the program I'm developing so that's enough for me at this stage.

One slight niggle is that it triggers Catalina's firewall alert every time you run it. It happily records your choice in the firewall preferences, but still asks again next time. My guess, based on almost no knowledge, is that the BeebLink functionality is triggering the firewall alert.

Checking "Block all incoming connections" makes the alert go away, but that's not ideal.

I'm not complaining (well, not about b2, the jury's out on Catalina), just sharing my experience.

Jeremy

[ThomasHarte]

After going through Apple's "control + click, cancel, control + click, oh look, you now get the option to run the program, run program" rigmarole, b2 starts up and runs as expected. OK, I don't know enough to test everything, but it runs the program I'm developing so that's enough for me at this stage.

One slight niggle is that it triggers Catalina's firewall alert every time you run it. It happily records your choice in the firewall preferences, but still asks again next time. My guess, based on almost no knowledge, is that the BeebLink functionality is triggering the firewall alert.

Checking "Block all incoming connections" makes the alert go away, but that's not ideal.

I'm not complaining (well, not about b2, the jury's out on Catalina), just sharing my experience.

Confirmed same experience here for the record, with only two additional things worth mentioning:

b2 uses one of the old keyboard APIs intended for accessibility tools (or, more specifically, SDL does), so macOS also pops up a prompt to ask you to authorise that. But you don't seem to lose anything for denying that request. I don't think there's much b2 can do about this unless and until SDL is fixed.

If you're having to "control + click, cancel" before doing a regular right-click launch, you're doing something incorrectly. An ordinary first launch right click -> 'Open...' got me the standard "we cannot verify that this program is safe"-type prompt from which I was permitted to open it.

(Additional context on the keyboard thing: it affects apps that proactively try to insert themselves as processors for the main text input source — i.e. the keyboard, as a global resource. Apps that just accept the keyboard events passed to them don't trigger any sort of prompt)

Aside query: if a mod is reading this, can we either: (i) keep the top post updated as it claims it will be; or (ii) unpin this thread, to allow it slowly to expire as its listing already has?

[tom_seddon]

After going through Apple's "control + click, cancel, control + click, oh look, you now get the option to run the program, run program" rigmarole, b2 starts up and runs as expected. OK, I don't know enough to test everything, but it runs the program I'm developing so that's enough for me at this stage.

One slight niggle is that it triggers Catalina's firewall alert every time you run it. It happily records your choice in the firewall preferences, but still asks again next time. My guess, based on almost no knowledge, is that the BeebLink functionality is triggering the firewall alert.

Checking "Block all incoming connections" makes the alert go away, but that's not ideal.

I'm not complaining (well, not about b2, the jury's out on Catalina), just sharing my experience.

Confirmed same experience here for the record, with only two additional things worth mentioning:

b2 uses one of the old keyboard APIs intended for accessibility tools (or, more specifically, SDL does), so macOS also pops up a prompt to ask you to authorise that. But you don't seem to lose anything for denying that request. I don't think there's much b2 can do about this unless and until SDL is fixed.

Thanks for the info - I missed this bit of the thread at the time. I do have Catalina on my occasional laptop, and will investigate when I get a moment. I've run b2 on it before, and don't remember seeing any alerts, but I bet I've only ever run it from within Xcode, which could well be why.

Regarding the network warning, this could be the debug HTTP server - the BeebLink support is also a possibility, but I don't think that actually does any network stuff until you use it, so the HTTP server seems a bit more likely. I should probably make the debug HTTP server an opt-in thing anyway.

Regarding SDL using outdated APIs, b2 is using an outdated version of SDL - I have my own fork, because of a long story, which is now rather out of date. I aim to do something about this at some point(tm), arranging things so that b2 can use unmodifed latest SDL on all platforms, and hopefully this will fix this particular issue - and maybe others.

--Tom

[Coeus]

I think it's useful to have a sticky with links to the various emulators, unless this information is kept somewhere else. Beebjit should also probably go on that list.

[sydney]

Aside query: if a mod is reading this, can we either: (i) keep the top post updated as it claims it will be; or (ii) unpin this thread, to allow it slowly to expire as its listing already has?

What are other peoples thoughts on this?
My original reason for creating this thread was that there were lots of new (and old!) members asking about the various emulators and where to get them and how to install them. I'd hoped that by getting it started it would simply be a case of us as a community keeping it up to date by posting any new emulators or updates to older ones in this thread that I could then use to update the top post. This hasn't really happened and the last post regarding updating the information was made by me 16 months ago. It wasn't my intention to trawl the forum and internet myself to find the information.
If people feel this thread is no longer useful I'll unsticky it and let it disappear.

[ThomasHarte]

Regarding SDL using outdated APIs, b2 is using an outdated version of SDL - I have my own fork, because of a long story, which is now rather out of date. I aim to do something about this at some point(tm), arranging things so that b2 can use unmodifed latest SDL on all platforms, and hopefully this will fix this particular issue - and maybe others.

I've read a little further on it, and some people are nevertheless sticking with the text input services API specifically because of its higher level of interception and at least offering users that option. Albeit in a very oblique and unfriendly way, but that's all Apple offers.

Specific differences: in my emulator I react only to keypress events delivered specifically to my application. So if the user presses an OS-wide shorcut, such as control+cursors to switch desktops, then they switch desktops. In any dosbox-bundled game from GoG they use the same API as SDL because quite a lot of games use control as a fire button and the cursors for movement — e.g. that's the original Doom layout. So they absolutely don't want control+cursors to switch desktops.

So it's not as clearcut as I'd believed for game-type applications and therefore SDL may well never switch. Though I also think Apple's warning results from a valid security concern.

Aside query: if a mod is reading this, can we either: (i) keep the top post updated as it claims it will be; or (ii) unpin this thread, to allow it slowly to expire as its listing already has?

What are other peoples thoughts on this?

I think I'm probably in the wrong. Possibly I'm conflating my discomfort at what feels to me like an etiquette breach, of shouting about whatever minor thing I've done to my emulator lately that's relevant to its listing here on multiple threads rather than just its own thread, with the idea that anybody other than me has a problem. Critical feedback definitely sought.

[Arcadian]

I do think it's useful to keep the thread stickied, but perhaps the top post could be renamed something like 'Index of links to 8-bit Acorn Emulators' ?

[BigEd]

I agree - retitle, keep stickied. And if discussions arise here which don't fit the title, scoop them into their own new threads.

(And if a particular emulator is in active development with questions arising, a fine idea to have a thread for that.)

[sydney]

I do think it's useful to keep the thread stickied, but perhaps the top post could be renamed something like 'Index of links to 8-bit Acorn Emulators' ?

Done.
It is a thought that occured to me when re-reading the thread. 'Emulator Information' wasn't a particularly useful title.
I think the thread is definitely worth keeping as it's had over 13000 views even though it's only 2 pages long meaning more people are reding than contributing which is exactly why it's here.

[ThomasHarte]

Suggested updates for the lead post:

• b2 is available as a prebuilt Linux binary via Snap;
• as is Clock Signal;
• also, given that Clock Signal emulates only the Electron from Acorn's lot, could it please just be listed as an Electron emulator?;
• alternatively, Tiny Emus is much, much broader in scope than only the Acorn Atom so it really should be moved down to the 'multiple systems' section — there are at least eight disjoint machines listed on its front page and I'm possibly being conservative since I don't know the difference between e.g. a KC85/3 and a KC85/4.

[BigEd]

It's true that Tiny Emus does a great job of emulating many systems, and that's worth a note, but it's also true that the link given goes straight to the Atom, and that the Atom is (presently) the only Acorn system offered.

(I struggle with the same categorisation problem in this list here which I help maintain.)

Edit: As, in this case, we only want a list of Acorn emulators, under a machine-type heading, it would be best to mention a multi-system emulator in each applicable header? So it gets a full billing where it first appears, and then another mention ("MAME - multisystem, see under Atom for details") in subsequent sections. Or, maybe, a mention is each applicable section with the full description in a footer ("MAME - see under Multisystem")

[Arcadian]

Edit: As, in this case, we only want a list of Acorn emulators, under a machine-type heading, it would be best to mention a multi-system emulator in each applicable header?

Agree with this. In fact, I don't think it's a massive problem if multi-system emulators like MAME gets a full reference in each applicable section, as we're only talking 3-4 lines max per entry.

[Arcadian]

Two more Javascript emulators that could be added to the index: Elk JS (Electron) and jsatom (Atom).

[sydney]

I'm going to have a sort out of this thread this afternoon doing the following:

• Move any off topic discussion to another thread.
• Remove the 'Multiple system' section entirely and place an entry in each system it supports.
• Add new emulators
• Update entries as suggested
• Reorder the list by system then alphabetically

Any other suggestions?

EDIT: DONE!

[sydney]

For emulators in browsers, it might be worth a scoreboard, as to whether they work in Chrome/Firefox/Safari/IE

This is a good idea that I somehow missed. Does anyone have any information I can include? I'll be trying each one myself eventually but I don't have a mac and don't use IE/edge.